Cheyney roiled by prostitute dorm visit

Past a television news truck idling at the bottom of the driveway, across the fraternity picnic site with wooden slatted furniture labeled "Parental Warning," and in and out of their warm dorms and classrooms, Cheyney University students have been trying to go about their business.

For the last few days, however, it's been hard to focus on calculus or Garcia Marquez, given the incessant buzz about an HIV-positive prostitute and her consorts on campus - and worse - the media attention they've attracted.

On Thursday, Sakinah Kenyell Floyd, 35, of Upper Darby was charged with offering her services as a prostitute in two of Cheyney's dormitories.

Floyd, who is not a student at the university, had allegedly been seen running around nude on the sixth floor of Truth Hall, a Cheyney dormitory. According to the police report, two men interviewed had paid the woman $20 for oral sex. She told police she had sex with 10.

Floyd said she was HIV positive and was carrying prescription medication used to treat the virus.

As of yesterday, she was being held at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility on $30,000 bail, said Joseph Brielmann, spokesman for the Delaware County District Attorney's Office. "We are asking anybody in the public who has had contact with this woman to seek medical assistance and to assess their situation," Brielmann said.

Floyd's preliminary hearing will be on Thursday.

On Cheyney's campus, 10 minutes from West Chester, concern about the potential health threat to students has been matched, if not overwhelmed, by anger over the negative press reports.

As she taped a flier on a dormitory lobby window, inviting students to learn about the summer City Year program, Tamika Harris, 19, said she felt the publicity about the prostitute, "has a negative impact on the school."

An education major from Newark, Harris said, "We have an open campus. I think she just showed up and somehow got into the dorms. They say she was in other colleges, too. Lincoln and Delaware State."

University spokeswoman Lisa James Goldsberry said the university was carrying out an investigation into how the woman got access to the dorms.

A meeting to discuss the incident is planned for tonight at 7, she said. Students, faculty and the public will be welcome.

But yesterday, the consensus was that the matter was personal to the Cheyney community.

"I'm sure everyone has heard about it," said Sharon Thorn, director of student activities, during an interview in her office at the Marcus Foster Student Union. "What more is there to say? We really don't need outsiders to tell us what to do. We've got it covered."

In the hallway, groups of students angrily gathered around a reporter, saying they expected the coverage to be "slander."

One dorm director curtly declined to be interviewed, saying, "I'd be happy to invite you to come back when we have an honors event."

Behind her, a student, waiting for the elevator shouted, "White people get AIDS, too!"

The wall at the main entrance to the student union announces "Established in 1837," and Cheyney, now part of the state university system, cherishes its legacy as America's oldest historically black institution of higher education. About 80 percent of the 1,700-student body is African American.

Rumors about how the prostitute got into the dorms, who the students are who had sex with her and whether or not they were using protection have been flying.

Several women said they had heard that the students were Cheyney football players.

But Darryl Wilkins, 17, who identified himself as a member of the team, said the reports were false.

"Don't believe any girls' stories," Wilkins said.

In a speech class last week, 19-year-old sophomore Darius Gaynor said that one of his professors felt that the issues raised by the incident were too important to ignore, and initiated a discussion about it.

"Students are concerned," Goldsberry said yesterday. "We're offering transportations to health centers and encouraging them to get tested." Later this week, she expected a group to come to campus to offer testing on site.

Goldsberry did not know how many students had availed themselves of the service or if any were found to be infected with the AIDS virus, but she said students had spoken with counselors and medical professionals. A few parents, she said, also had called with concerns.

"Of course, people are talking about it," she said. "There are health alerts up all over campus."

The alerts, posted on doors and windows across campus provide information about the incident and urge students who had contact with the woman to seek testing and prophylactic treatment.

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, the school said several programs, including a previously scheduled student assembly on Thursday, will address HIV/AIDS prevention and hold question and answer sessions.

"For some students, this has served as a bit of wake-up call," Goldsberry said. "Just to remind them about practicing safe sex . . . and to know their HIV status."

Rob Roy MacGregor, an infectious disease expert at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said when the transmission of HIV is suspected, a course of antibiotics is generally recommended as soon as possible and up to a week after an incident.

Since it can take six weeks or more for the HIV antibodies to appear, MacGregor said students who do not test positive but had contact with the woman should take the prophylactic, then get retested.

Gaynor, a businessmajor agreed to talk on his way to an English class, but like many of his fellow students, he said he resented the unfavorable news coverage.

"Other colleges have prostitution going on, but they have money to cover it up. They don't get the media attention."

The university has struggled with financial difficulties, declining enrollment and leadership problems for many years.

Last month, its athletic director, Patrick D. Simon, was placed on administrative leave. In the fall, reports showed that the school overspent its $35 million annual operating budget by $2.16 million in the last fiscal year. And its previous president, W. Clinton Pettus, was ousted amid outcries that his administration was "incompetent and impotent."

As evidence of how positive news is ignored, Thorn noted that last week, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean came to speak on campus.

"There was no media coverage. So the students are exactly right. We think it's a racist practice to report when we have black eyes and not when we're doing well," Thorn said. "We feel we are truly being exploited."